Blondie Comes to Solomons

Guitarist Chris Stein gives us all the deets

By Ashley Brotherton

Rock n’ Roll Hall of Famers, punk rockers and American legends Blondie perform their hits at Calvert Marine Museum’s PNC Waterside Pavilion on Sept. 30.
The 40-year-old pioneering punk rock band is named for its leading lady and singer, 67-year-old Debbie Harry.
Harry, the face of Blondie, and Chris Stein, guitarist, are the core of the six-person band, and the only members who have been with Blondie since the beginning as Angel and the Snake. History has stuck Stein and Harry together like glue.
“We went through some crazy times together,” Stein told me long distance from Sacramento. “She had my back and I had hers. When you have been doing it as long as we have been doing it, you learn everything about each other.” Stein loves playing the “freshest stuff,” but “there is always an emotional connection with the old stuff that takes the show to a different place.”
That’s songs like “Heart of Glass,” “Call Me” and “The Flame.”
After 40 years on the road, Stein loves touring. “I would miss it if we didn’t do it.” His favorite part of touring: “You don’t have to clean up after ­yourself.”
Touring is an industry now, Stein says, making shows and stops run like clock work.
This fall’s tour takes the band from the Midwest to the East Coast, with Calvert Marine Museum in the middle.
As well as standards, Blondie will play songs from the 2011 album Panic of Girls.
Cheap Trick — who’s been rocking a year longer than Blondie — opens the Calvert Marine Museum show with “Surrender,” and “I Want You to Want Me.”
Summer concerts in the Waterside Pavilion support the museum’s year-round education and preservation programs.

Gates open at 6pm. Come early to eat and drink from an array of food and beer trucks. No picnic coolers, lawn chairs or pets; all seats reserved. Handicapped seating and parking limited. Show starts at 7:30pm at Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons. $42-$52; rsvp: 800-787-9454; www.calvertmarinemuseum.com.